I've been getting into 78s again lately, so I decided to do some shopping for Christmas 78s. A few weeks ago I asked at a record store in the area that has lots of 78s if they had any Christmas 78s I could look through, and they suggested I check back in a few weeks, they haven't had a chance to put any aside yet. So, I checked back today, and they had a pile of them today. Apparently I've been the only one so far this year to ask about Christmas 78s, so I got first picks, and ended up walking out of the store with the whole pile.

I've posted pictures of some of the highlights here, figured some of you here might enjoy having a look. I was particularly thrilled to find the Percy Faith 78, and the Fred Waring album.

If you have a record vacuum, there are cleaning fluids made specifically for 78s, you don't want to use the same fluid that they make for LPs. But, from what I've seen online, the common way to clean the 78s is water and dish detergent, which has works for me. It's a bit of a pain, and you want to be careful to keep the label dry, but it works.

Ditto to what Jon-G said, I got into 78s a couple of years back but while search is fun, I found the final results far from satisfying.

1. No matter where or what you find, you have to inspect every record in the album, you will 90% of the time find that one or more has been swapped with something completely unrelated2. Despite how the LPs look in the jackets, take each one out, usually you find one cracked in two, even though it looked fine in the jacket.3. Surface condition is usually an issue, warm water and soap helps get the grooves clean but the scratches are forever.4. Playback is the next issue. You need a turntable that plays 78 obviously, but you also need a cartridge that has the larger 78 needle. The smaller LP needle probably will drop to the bottom of the 78 groove and give you a lot of noise.5. Even after all that, and doing the best electronic clean ups and equalization they still sound like a 78.

Even though I have gone to all the trouble above, I usually find the 78s languish in obscurity on the hard drive, if the music was any good, it has long since been remastered on LPs, Cassettes or CDs and I listen to those versions.

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--------------------------------------------------------------Steve
aka OGO =Oh Great One

Yes, those are all issues one deals with. But, if you can find some decent condition 78s, and get the right equipment, you can get some decent sounding 78s.

If you find a good source for 78 shopping and want to take the plunge, you'll need to get a turntable that does 78, and a wide stylus. Numark made a model that does 78, the Numark ttx. There is also a similar model, the ttx-usb. It's a more modern turntable, design for mixing, but it's built solid, and gets the job done for 78s. It's discontinued, but if you keep an eye out on ebay, you can pick one up for a reasonable price. Just make sure to pick one up with the S tonearm....the straight one is so short, I don't see how anyone could properly align a cartridge using it.

For a cartridge/stylus for proper 78 playback, there's the shure M78S, which can be had for $59 from amazon.com. It comes with jumpers on the connectors to combine both channels to mono, since 78s are mono. This does help with noise some. But, the jumpers can be removed if you wish to keep the stereo sides separate (which can be useful for people that want to record them in and do NR or pick the better sounding side).

Also, with modern equipment, the EQ curve may be off a bit. Having a graphic EQ in your system is helpful, turning down the high frequency range will also help with noise issues.

I find that using CoolEditPro2 for ripping my 78's that I am able to choose MONO for the recording process, though in my headphones, I can hear 2 channels and sometimes there will be a scratch on the left or right side of the track, and if I recorded it in Stereo, the clicks would be in the left or right channel in the finished MP3. I am also able to eliminate a majority of the rhythmic hiss from the record spinning so fast, and they usually end up sounding pretty good. I don't have a 78 RPM speed on my turntable, so I have to rip/record the record at 45 RPM and then use CoolEditPro2 to Time/Pitch/Stretch the rip so it sounds like it was ripped at 78 RPM, but in actually listening to the record, I hear it slower than it wold be.

As for cleaning records, whether they be Vinyl, Lacquer or Acetate, you should stay away from anything with alcohol in it because it will eventually eat into the records and ruin them. I usually uses a light mixture of Dawn Dish Washing Liquid and lightly rub the solution onto the record in circular motions and try not to get the label wet, the I rinse them under warm water while rubbing my fingers on the record to make sure I get all the soap off, then I put the record on a few paper towels and very carefully pat them dry and they usually come out clean and sound better than if I hadn't cleaned them.

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--------------------------------------------------------------Christmas Isn't Just A Day In December, It's A Way Of LifeSusan

I had a chance to record some things in tonight, so figured I'd do a quick recording of a few of the 78s. Just a quick straight recording off the 78, no click removal or noise reduction....maybe next year I'll have more time to do a little work on these, but here are a few recordings to enjoy.